Senatorial topnotcher Loren Legarda-Leviste must be very happy with the election results. After all, in spite of her (separated) husband’s incarceration (but recently released on bail) as a murder suspect and her vice presidential loss in the 2004 elections and the subsequent (and still on-going?) electoral protest, she still managed to top the senatorial race. Her performance is so overwhelming that even teammate Nikki Coseteng raised eyebrows when she learned that Loren got 99 % or even more than 100 % of the votes cast in several places. Talk about statistical improbability!
But what I am really concerned about is Ms. Legarda-Leviste’s civil status. Is she married? Divorced? Separated? Or single?
There is no divorce in the Philippines so she could not be a divorcée. Her marriage to Leviste, the former Governor of Batangas could not have been annulled by the Catholic Church because she was not married in the Catholic Church.
Her husband, Gov. Leviste, is still married to his first wife when he married Ms. Legarda. Governor Leviste reportedly converted to Islam and then took Ms. Legarda as his second wife.
Under Philippine laws, Leviste would be guilty of bigamy and concubinage. Apparently, the Levistes are invoking Shari’a or Islamic Law where polygamy is allowed. But is it allowed in the case of the Levistes?
In Islam, everything revolves around INTENT or NIYYAT. What was the intention of Gov. Leviste when he converted to Islam? Was it just to marry another woman? And what was his intention in marrying Ms. Legarda?
When the Governor converted to Islam, it was incumbent upon him to persuade his wife to convert to Islam, too. Failing that, he could divorce the wife and marry a Muslim. This was what the former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali did.
But the Governor neither divorced his first wife nor married a Muslim. Instead, he got another Christian wife.
Presumably, the Governor married Ms. Legarda in Islamic rites. He could not possibly marry her in civil or Catholic rites.
A few Muslim Filipinos marry Christians in Muslim rites. This is very problematic. Common sense dictates that a non-Muslim’s marriage to a Muslim in Islamic rites could not be valid because in the first place, the non-Muslim does not believe in Islam. I believe that existing Islamic jurisprudence supports this assertion.
It is the same case as a Muslim married to a Christian in Christian rites. It would simply be void ab initio.
Since Ms. Legarda is not a Muslim, her marriage to Gov. Leviste might not be valid.
Gov. Leviste and Sen. Legarda are now apparently separated. How did they separate? Did they go to a Shari’a court or to a civil court?
The legal status of Sen. Legarda’s marriage to Gov. Leviste needs to be settled. Being a lawmaker, Sen. Legarda could not afford to be a law-breaker like her husband who is charged for killing his aide.
And since there seems to be an increasing number of Muslim-Christian mixed marriages, there is a need for a definitive ruling on this issue.